"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows"

Spring is well and truly here, the birds are all singing, the snowdrops are over, the daffodils are out and all the wildflowers are starting to bloom.

Primroses are in bloom along the lane and all around the banks of the farm.

The first of the violets are also starting to flower.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly the wild strawberries are also in flower.

A magical time of year even without Oberon and Titania.

Fencing - Stage 2

Another gloriously sunny day, absolutely ideal and so back to the fence. I need to get it finished so the sheep can go back into this field during lambing which is only about 3 weeks away!

The next job is to make an 'H' frame at either end of the fence to support the strainer and stop it leaning over when the tension of the fencing wire comes on it. And it's going to be under quite a lot of tension as you will see later.

Having secured it at one end, the sheep wire is then rolled out along the fence....

.....and attached to the tractor using my homemade sheep wire puller.

I asked a man once how tight the sheep wire should be pulled: "Well", he said "I have a Massey 165 and I just pull until the front wheels come off the ground and put on the handbrake. That's usually about  right!" (Health Warning: do not try this at home!) 

That's the sheep wire up, and the hedge is now safe! I'll put an electric top strand on later to stop the cattle and horses from leaning over and having a gentle nibble, but that's for another day!

Close-up of sheep wire strainer as requested by farmersimonk

Fencing - Stage 1

Having planted our new hedge we have to put up a new fence to keep the stock away from it. There is nothing sheep like more than a nice tender, green shoot of new hedge even if they're up to their oxters in grass!

The quad is one of the most versatile machines we have, and having loaded the trailer, I drove along and put out the posts in the line of the new fence.

 We have a tractor-mounted fence post driver, which makes very short work of putting in posts.

With a 7' straining post driven down to about 4' at either end of the fence, I run a line of wire between them and having pulled it tight, I have a straight line to follow when hammering in the intermediates.

Within reason, it doesn't matter what angle the tractor is at because you can adjust the post driver to suit.

Nearly all in!

Included this because I quite like the photo. It also gives an idea of how the machine works, and when you consider that the hammer weighs 380kg it's not surprising that it will drive even the biggest posts with ease!

Puppies!

Smidgen on left and her daughter Iota on right

Great news! Iota has pups and Smidgen has grandpups! Born yesterday morning.

 One dog and two bitches, they are one day old in these photographs.

Eyes closed and constantly suckling, you can almost see them putting on weight. We'll get some better photos once they are up and about and their eyes have opened.

We found that Iota settles much better in a box where she and her puppies cannot be seen, hence the lid, and usually a pair of beady eyes keeping an eye out for danger!